They rate us, they don't rate us.... Swans 2009 previews

[ShockOfHair]

Nathan Buckley says 14th and Robert Walls 12th in today's Age liftout (which is infinitely better than the Hun's one).

Walls also says we rely too much on Crouch!!

He was probably thinking of Kelly.

[573v30]

According to the AFL '09 liftout from the Sunday Times:

TAB have us at $51 to win the flag (14th favourite), $3 to make the 8 (equal 13th with Essendon) and $12 to win the wooden spoon (4th favourite).

Out of 18 "experts" to predict the top 8, only 3 picked the Swans to make the eight: Brad Hardie (4th), Mike Hussey (5th) and Alastair Lynch (8th).

$26 for Goodes to win the Brownlow.

Looked up the Ozbet site, $1500 for Sydney/West Coast Grand Final Quinella.

[GoSouth33]

Season 2009...

We will win, we will lose. We will play good footbal, we will play bad football.

Hall's mental state will be questioned, Roo's selections will be scrutinised.

Crowds will come, crowds will go.

I will cheer, I will thump tables and throw pillows when we lose, I will hug people next to me at matches when when we win thrillers.

I will boo umpires and I will banter with oppostion supporters.

I love the footy, I love my team!

Go Swannies in 09!

Aint that the truth!!

[msb]

Nathan Buckley says 14th and Robert Walls 12th in today's Age liftout (which is infinitely better than the Hun's one).

Walls also says we rely too much on Crouch!!

Walls has had it in for us since we proved him wrong in 2005!

I take no notice of these 'think they know everything' journos, buckley obviously was a champ and knows everything about the game, but he is wrong saying we will be 14th! It's really funny every year the same bull@#$% gets rolled out (too old, unhealthy heavy reliance on hall, goodes, kirk etc) and we prove them wrong. GO SWANS PROVE EM WRONG AGAIN!!!!!!!

[RogueSwan]

Today in the SMH sport section (can not find an online version) there is a brief blurb on each team:
Sydney:
Why they can win: If more swans can make the leap from promising goer to matchwinner like Jarrad McVeigh did last year, they will continue to be dangerous
Why they can't:Speculation mounts the super consistent swans are the slide. The strength of a team that can't afford a bottoming-out phase lies in the players who are approaching pension time

No great insight there.
The bit I did like though was the columnist's predictions:
Biggest controversy:An umpire's head falls off after being crammed with too many rules and interpretations. It gets rushed through for a behind

Made me chuckle this morning.

[ShockOfHair]

Only one of 21 Melbourne pundits sees Swans in the eight, according to Richard Hinds. Plus Hinds makes its two.


Swans to see September but Cats have the flag - News - realfooty.com.au

I'd rather be there than where the Blues are at. Everyone has tipped them to play finals.

[johnno]

Reminds me a lot of 2003, remember that year people? Everyone had us winning the wooden spoon that year. One of my greatest memories was just prior to channel 10's coverage of the prelim final that year between Brissie and the swans, they played a montage of all the so called "footy experts" who tipped the swans to finish last that year to the song "SORRY" by some singer who's name escapes me. We were 1 quarter away from a grand final that year people. So all this prediction of the swans having a major slide is just fine by me, I just hope Roos uses this ammunition properly to fire up the boys for the season ahead.

[Mike_B]

Reminds me a lot of 2003, remember that year people? Everyone had us winning the wooden spoon that year. One of my greatest memories was just prior to channel 10's coverage of the prelim final that year between Brissie and the swans, they played a montage of all the so called "footy experts" who tipped the swans to finish last that year to the song "SORRY" by some singer who's name escapes me. We were 1 quarter away from a grand final that year people. So all this prediction of the swans having a major slide is just fine by me, I just hope Roos uses this ammunition properly to fire up the boys for the season ahead.

Very true, but the difference between 2003 and 2009 is that the majority of our best players in 2009 are the same names as in 2003, only 6 years older. Hence the concern...

[johnno]

Very true, but the difference between 2003 and 2009 is that the majority of our best players in 2009 are the same names as in 2003, only 6 years older. Hence the concern...

....more experienced.

[Mike_B]

Yes, more experienced, but is that necessarily a good thing? Perhaps some are past their best? Only time will tell...

[Mr Magoo]

It would be interesting to see the team of 2003 to see if at that time we had a team with a few oldies etc or they were all just a bunch of unblossomed stars that we now know as the premiership team of 2005.

I suspect that the mix of the 2003 team would be similar to the current mix (ie some players from the 96 era still playing and some younger guys coming through).

Can anyone put this in perspective.

[liz]

At the start of 2003, no-one knew that Hall, Goodes, Kirk and O'Keefe were capable of playing at the level they have played at for much (most in the case of the latter two) of the past 6 years. Most of them started to play well in 2003 but have got better since. Who is willing to bet that they are all about to drop off?

Plus B2 was yet to play a game for us and was a way off becoming the player he has since become.

Of course, we also need to factor in that we are without players like Maxfield, Williams and Ball from the team that started 2003. But I don't think it is questions marks over our best dozen or so players that is the issue. It is whether we have the depth/up-and-comers to fill in for injuries and the couple of "free spots" left in the best 22.

[johnno]

Yes, more experienced, but is that necessarily a good thing? Perhaps some are past their best? Only time will tell...

To quote the character named Oddball(Donald Sutherland) from the movie Kelly's heroes....que hippy voice: "why all the negative vibes man?, You've got to have positive vibes man".

[Wardy]

Some of the predictions in the Age are hilarious. But most say we are on the slide - oh well I guess they had to name a team - so may as well be ours. I'm erring on the side of caution, but I think we will scrape into the 8 - but then I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure.

[laughingnome]

It would be interesting to see the team of 2003 to see if at that time we had a team with a few oldies etc or they were all just a bunch of unblossomed stars that we now know as the premiership team of 2005.

I suspect that the mix of the 2003 team would be similar to the current mix (ie some players from the 96 era still playing and some younger guys coming through).

Can anyone put this in perspective.

Sourced from All The Stats, here is a short list of those who played senior football for Sydney in 2003, ages (as of 1/1/03) in brackets followed by senior games that year. Bold indicates players now retired/traded/etc.
Ablett, Luke (20) 4
Ball, Jason (30) 17
Barry, Leo (25) 24
Bolton, Craig (22) 24
Bolton, Jude (22) 24
Cresswell, Daryn (31) 19
Crouch, Jared (24) 24
Davis, Nick (22) 24
Doyle, Stephen (21) 4
Fosdike, Nic (22) 24
Goodes, Adam (22) 24
Hall, Barry (25) 24
James, Heath (22) 2
Kennelly, Tadhg (21) 24
Kirk, Brett (26) 24
Mathews, Ben (24) 23
Maxfield, Stuart (30) 22
McPherson, Daniel (27) 3
Meiklejohn, James (18) 5
Nicks, Matthew (27) 18
O'Keefe, Ryan (21) 16
O'Loughlin, Michael (25) 16
Powell, Mark (18) 5
R-Thomson, Lewis (19) 16
Saddington, Jason (23) 14
Schauble, Andrew (26) 23
Schneider, Adam (18) 24
Seymour, Brad (26) 2
Stevens, Scott (20) 11
Sundqvist, Jarrad (20) 8
Warfe, Rowan (26) 13
Williams, Paul (29) 23

With only three players 30+ on that list and 15 players 22 or under, it seems apparent that we were tipped to slide because we were too young, not old, and that no one outside of Sydney knew these kids. Our list of seniors for 2009 (not incl. rookies) has five 30+ players and 12 who are 22 or under. So there are similarities, but 2003 counted on the younger faces making a big impact. I hope it will happen again but as a whole the list is a little older and I think our depth would be questioned.

I still say top 6 though.
For those who don't have the 2009 senior list it can be found here.